Above Our Worries

"Do not worry about your life... Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well." Matthew 6:25, 33

We most often read the instructions of Jesus as messages about us. But there is another meaning to them all. They are all messages about God as well. We know what this statement says about us - that we are worriers by nature. But what does it say about God? That if Jesus is in a position to tell us not to worry, it must mean that His Father is aware of our needs and our future, and able to do something about them both.

We often get such advice from friends, "Don't worry. It will be okay." But this is just advice, encouraging words meant to help us keep a positive outlook. Our friends can really do nothing to change a stressful situation other than be with us as we walk through it. Jesus can do more than this. His encouragement comes from His intimate knowledge of the Father. His words are more than gentle advice. He knows something we don't know.

What Jesus knows is this: God feeds and clothes His children. No one who trusts Him is abandoned by Him. They may go through hardship; they may even die. But never before He specifically allows it in His own timing. Never is their provision beyond His purview. While the pagan world takes provision as each individual's responsibility, Jesus says the initiative is God's.

Above our worries is an active Provider with a perfect sense of timing. He is in control, even when we aren't sure how tomorrow's needs will be met. When we run after provision, we are running after the wrong thing, something that God has claimed as His domain. We are to run after His kingdom and righteousness. That's what we were made for.

"If you would voyage Godward, you must see to it that the rudder of thought is right." ~W. J. Dawson